Perez was stabbed during an altercation on a street that divides Highway 101 from a row of businesses.

Sheriff's spokesman Capt. Ross Bonfiglio said Perez was leaving one of the businesses when he was attacked by at least five people. Bonfiglio declined to say if the victim was alone or with others at the time.

"It is believed to be gang-related," Bonfiglio said of the assault. "There's evidence to indicate the suspects are gang-affiliated."

No one had been arrested as of Thursday. Authorities did not release any descriptions of the assailants.

The incident appeared to be a fight between a total of about 10 young men from two groups, said Leo Martinez, owner of a nearby custom graphics business called The Lab. Martinez was inside his business when he heard the scuffle, he said.

When he ran outside, Martinez saw one group of about five young men leaving in a car and Perez staggering from the street toward a chain-link fence around an unoccupied business. The group of teens from Perez's group stayed at the scene.

Martinez checked Perez's breathing and called for an ambulance while a friend put pressure on the young man's wound, he said.

Today, a makeshift memorial marked the spot where Perez fell. The memorial included a green figurine, pink and purple flowers and a wreath of green pine sprigs.

Perez's killing appeared unrelated to a stabbing that occurred about five minutes later in Oxnard, Bonfiglio said. A 22-year-old man was in stable condition Thursday following the stabbing in Oxnard's Lemonwood Park Neighborhood.

Anyone with information about Perez's killing can call sheriff's homicide investigators at 477-7000 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 800-222-TIPS. Crime Stoppers will pay up to $1,000 for information leading to an arrest and criminal complaint.